The previous chapter provided an overview of studies on m-learning, especially studies examining learning English vocabulary of using via smartphones. In addition, vocabulary knowledge has also been reviewed. This chapter focused on the research methodology outline of the current study, including the participants, instrumentation, methods, procedures, and data analysis.
3.1 Participants and setting
The participants in the current study were 130 international university students from China, including 74 females and 56 males at a government university in the northeastern of Thailand. The age of participants in this study ranged from 18 to 35 years old, and they had been living in Thailand for between three months and two years. All participants included undergraduate and graduate students who were non- English majors but had studied English for more than ten years. Participants were studying several majors at different faculties such as Music, Art, Education, International Business and so on. All Chinese participants were selected due to their answer of using smartphones in vocabulary learning in the questionnaire. According to the university’s international student admissions office, the Thai language fluency of the participants was quite limited because they had never learned the language before arriving in Thailand. Their English skills were also only average, given that they were not studying English at university. Figure 1 showed participants’ English language proficiency before they started their academic life in Thailand. The result showed that 38% of all participants’ scores were between 60 to 70 points, followed by 22% of all participants’ scores were between 50 to 60 points as well as 50 to 60 points, after that, of all participants’ scores were between 80 to 90 points. Finally, just 6% of all participants’ scores were between 90 to 100 points. It means that the English levels of Chinese EFL participants in the current study were not high.
27
Figure 1: English language proficiency (university EGS score) of participants (full marks: 100)
As such, the participants had to improve their English level not only for classroom communication but also meet the needs of daily life in Thailand. Thus, it is important and meaningful to explore the types of smartphones they used in their English vocabulary learning.
Participants were given a small survey to select the smartphone applications they usually use to learn English vocabulary. The top five applications (Youdao dictionary, Google translate, WeChat, Baicizhan, and YouTube) were used in the questionnaire to obtain the data of the current study. Therefore, the quantitative data was collected by an online questionnaire while the qualitative data collected by interview.
3.2 Research instruments 3.2.1 Questionnaire
The quantitative data in this study was collected by an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to explore the current situation of Chinese students who were studying in Thailand and using smartphones to learn English vocabulary outside of the classroom. Thus, the questionnaire included such as smartphone applications types, the extent Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary both receptively and productively, participants’ usage habits, learning motivation and content, usage effects in the learning process, user evaluation of the current situation, and their attitudes towards smartphone applications, and so on. All question items were came up with based on the theoretical framework of vocabulary knowledge by
28
Nation (2013) which including three aspects (form, meaning, and use) of a word from receptive knowledge and productive knowledge. After that, the validity and reality of the questionnaire were variffied by five experts.
Part I of the questionnaire required participants to complete their personal information. Part II investigated mobile English learning and the feasibility of using smartphones to assist in English vocabulary learning. Part III sought the extent that Chinese learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary, both receptively and productively. This part also included participants’ overall attitudes on their experiences with using smartphones for English vocabulary learning outside of the classroom. Personal information was used for the analysis of the types of subjects in different majors. A five-point Likert scale was used to measure the participants’
responses from 1 to 5 (1= strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree). There were 45 questions in the questionnaire, including five-point Likert items, single choice items, and multiple-choice items to study the extent Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary, both receptively and productively. Specifically, items 1-9 related to the word form, items 10-19 related to the word meaning, and items 20-29 related to the word use of the word knowledge.
Besides, items 30-40 response to Chinese EFL participants’ attitudes towards smartphone applications. The questionnaire was sent to 150 Chinese learners to obtain 130 valid questionnaires (See APPENDIX A).
3.2.2 Interview
On the questionnaire, the participants were asked to tick (√) whether they were willing to come forward for an interview. Regarding the questionnaire response, there were 30 participants available for the personal interview. The researcher listed their name into the alphabetical order and selected only 20 participants. The final list for the interview was 15 participants to collect qualitative data due to their convenience on the real interview date. The participants were asked 10 questions in Chinese language in the process of the whole interview. In addition, the interview process of each participant was also recorded by the researcher. An interview survey based on the questionnaire survey ensures the reliability and validity of the data collected. The purpose of this interview was to gain additional information about how Chinese EFL
29
learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary. It also aimed to obtain constructive suggestions for further research. Ten open-ended questions were designed (see APPENDIX D).
3.3 Data collection procedure
The questionnaire phase of the study was conducted online using “Wenjuanxing” (an accessible webpage for questionnaires in China), completed on a questionnaire production platform, and distributed to all participants through social media. Then, the selected fifteen participants took part in the interview. To meet the purpose of this research, a mixed-method design was used. The questionnaire was to collect quantitative data, and the interview was to collect qualitative data. Data were collected over three weeks.
3.4. Data analysis
All the collected quantitative data from questionnaires were analyzed by the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS 22.0) software. The probability coefficient (p), which can range from 0 to 1, was calculated, and the significance level was set at 0.05, to reject the null hypothesis (Dörnyei, 2007). In the current research, the qualitative data from interviews were categorized into themes (form, meaning, use, and attitudes) to explore how Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary.
3.5 Summary
This chapter outlined the methodology of the present study, including the research context, participants, instruments of assessment, and data collection procedures. The next chapter will present the results and discussion of the current study. A summary of the research design procedures for the current study was shown in Figure 2 below.
30
Phase Procedure Data analysis
Select students
N = 130
Native Chinese students studying in Thailand
Questionnaire (quantitative data)
N=130; Q=40
SPSS22.0 Online questionnaire
Investigated mobile English learning and the feasibility of using smartphones to assist English vocabulary learning. (the types of smartphone applications, the extent that Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary both receptively and productively.)
Interview (qualitative data)
N =15; Q = 10
Categorizing into themes To gain additional information about how Chinese EFL
learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary.
To obtain constructive suggestions for further research.
Figure 2: Visual diagram of research design procedures for the current study (N=Number of participants, Q=questions)
31
CHAPTER IV RESULTS
The previous chapter addressed the methodology used for the analysis of the data to answer the research questions in the present study. This chapter presents the results of smartphones facilitating vocabulary learning by Chinese students studying in Thailand. Firstly, the overall use of smartphones facilitating vocabulary learning is presented. Secondly, students' attitudes toward smartphones in promoting vocabulary learning is shown. Finally, this chapter also gives precedence to the qualitative data, which is regarded as rationales why Chinese students use smartphones to acquire and retain English vocabulary. To be noted, this is constructed on the framework of word knowledge (Nation, 2013).
4.1 The use of smartphones in Chinese EFL learners 4.1.1 Quantitative results
The first research question of the current study is “To what extent do Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary, both receptively and productively?”. In response to the use of smartphones in vocabulary learning among Chinese EFL learners, data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Descriptive statistics included means and standard deviation (SD) for each item based on the word knowledge framework (Nation, 2013). Table 2 illustrates the overall percentage of smartphone applications by Chinese EFL learners.
Table 2: The use of smartphone applications by Chinese EFL learners
Smartphone applications No. of smartphone users Percent (%)
Youdao dictionary 84 64.62
Google Translate 72 55.38
Baicizhan 24 18.46
YouTube 14 10.77
WeChat 10 7.69
N = 130
32
Table 2 illustrates that the Chinese EFL participants used smartphones to learn English vocabulary, and some of them used more than one smartphone application to learn vocabulary. Participants used Youdao (64.62%) as the most used application facilitating vocabulary learning, followed by Google Translate (55.38%), Baicizhan (18.46%), Youtube (10.77%) and, at least, WeChat (7.69%), respectively.
The results of the study showed the overall based on participants’ questionnaire data that smartphones were positively useful to learn a word, including form, meaning, and use, both receptively and productively. The descriptive statistics of 130 Chinese EFL participants’ performance on smartphones facilitating learning a word were shown in the following Tables. More specifically, the results of the word form performance are shown in Table 3.
Table 3: The use of smartphones in learning receptive and productive knowledge of word form
Word form Questionnaire items Mean % SD
Receptive
1. Smartphone helps me know what the word sounds like. 3.90 78.14 0.81 2. Smartphone helps me hear both the British and
American pronunciations of the word. 3.72 74.41 0.86 3. Smartphone helps me see what the word looks like. 3.73 74.71 0.81 4. Smartphone helps me recognize its word class. 3.65 73.04 0.79
Total 3.75 75.07 0.82
Productive
5. Smartphone helps me know how the word is
pronounced. 3.78 75.69 0.80
6. Smartphone helps me see how the word is written and
spelled. 3.84 76.96 0.81
7. Smartphone helps me identify what word part is needed
to express the meaning. 3.71 74.22 0.78
8. Smartphone helps remind the intonation of the word. 3.58 71.67 0.85 9. Smartphone helps me better explain a word form to
others correctly. 3.53 70.69 0.82
Total 3.69 73.84 0.81
Overall 3.72 74.39 0.81
N =130
33
Table 3 illustrates that the word form, including questionnaire items 1 to 9, was consideredly gained 74.39% (Mean=3.72, SD=0.81) overall facilitated by smartphone applications, specifically, 75.07% (Mean=3.75, SD=0.82) in promoting to learn receptive form (questionnaire items 1 to 4) and 73.84% (Mean=3.69, SD=0.81) of the productive form (questionnaire items 5 to 9). The analytical results of the word meaning performance are shown in Table 4.
Table 4: The use of smartphones in learning receptive and productive knowledge of word meaning
Word meaning Questionnaire items Mean % SD
Receptive
10. Smartphone helps me think of idioms or other
expressions related to words. 3.57 71.47 0.84
11. Smartphone helps me see the English explanation
of the words. 3.72 74.51 0.86
12. Smartphone helps me think of other words from the
known word. 3.57 71.47 0.88
13. Smartphone helps me understand what people say. 3.65 73.13 0.80 14. Smartphone helps me remember the meaning of the
word. 3.65 73.04 0.78
Total 3.63 72.72 0.83
Productive
15. Smartphone helps retrieve the synonyms of the
word. 3.69 73.82 0.80
16. Smartphone helps recall the antonyms of words. 3.59 71.86 0.84 17. Smartphone helps me use other words instead of
the known word. 3.60 72.15 0.82
18. Smartphone expands my knowledge of a word
family, using roots, prefixes, and suffixes. 3.51 70.39 0.86 19. Smartphone helps me choose the appropriate word
form to express the precise meaning. 3.56 71.37 0.76
Total 3.59 71.92 0.82
Overall 3.61 72.32 0.82
Note: *p < 0.001
Table 4 illustrates that regarding word meaning, consisting of questionnaire items 10 to 19, it was overall 72.32% (Mean=3.61, SD=0.82) facilitated by smartphone applications, and the receptive meaning with questionnaire items 10 to 14 was conducted to be stimulated with 72.72% (Mean=3.63, SD=0.83) and 71.92%
(Mean=3.59, SD=0.82) of the productive meaning, comprising questionnaire items 15 to 19. The performances of the word use results are shown as follows:
34
Table 5: The use of smartphones in learning receptive and productive knowledge of word use
Word use Questionnaire items Mean % SD
Receptive
20. Smartphone helps me recognize the patterns in which the
word often occurs. 3.50 70.19 0.85
21. Smartphone helps me recognize the collocations of this
word. 3.52 70.49 0.81
22. Smartphone helps me comprehend the various usages of
the word. 3.60 72.05 0.86
23. Smartphone helps me learn the function of the word. 3.61 72.25 0.80 24. Smartphone makes me aware of the grammar rules that
apply to the word. 3.50 70.00 0.85
Total 3.54 70.99 0.83
Productive
25. Smartphone helps me identify the patterns of the word I
should use. 3.54 70.98 0.79
26. Smartphone helps me identify collocations that usually
occur with this word. 3.61 72.35 0.80
27. Smartphone helps me use word tenses correctly when I
speak. 3.52 70.58 0.79
28. Smartphone helps me use the right collocation of words
when I talk to others. 3.59 71.96 0.79
29. Smartphone helps me use the correct grammar when I do
grammar exercises. 3.52 70.49 0.85
Total 3.56 71.27 0.80
Overall 3.55 71.13 0.82
Table 5 illustrates that smartphones with 71.13% (Mean=3.55, SD=0.82) helpfully improved the word use, questionnaire items 20 to 29, precisely, 70.99% (Mean=3.54, SD=0.83) of receptive use (questionnaire items 20 to 24), and 71.27% (Mean=3.56, SD=0.80) of productive use (questionnaire items 25 to 29).
Descriptive statistics performance of the Chinese EFL participants on the facilitated smartphones in developing learners’ word knowledge, both receptively and productively was relatively positive. The results of 130 Chinese EFL participants’
performance on smartphones facilitating learning a word is shown as following:
35
Table 6: The overall use of smartphones in learning word knowledge for Chinese EFL learners (n = 130)
Word aspects Mean % SD t-value
Form
R 3.75 75.07 0.82
0.811
P 3.69 73.84 0.81
Total 3.72 74.39 0.81
Meaning
R 3.63 72.72 0.83
3.360*
P 3.59 71.92 0.82
Total 3.61 72.32 0.82
Use
R 3.54 70.99 0.83
-.823
P 3.56 71.27 0.80
Total 3.55 71.13 0.82
Overall
R 3.64 72.92 0.83
P 3.61 72.34 0.81 .843
Total 3.62 72.63 0.82
Note: *p < 0.001
Table 6 addresses the overall descriptive statistics of smartphones in learning word knowledge aspects, form, meaning, and use, both receptively and productively by Chinese EFL participants. Descriptive statistics performance of the Chinese EFL participants on the facilitated smartphones in developing learners’ word knowledge, both receptively and productively was relatively positive. The findings of the current study indicated that smartphones were positively useful to learn word knowledge aspects overall with 72.63% (Mean=3.62, SD=0.82), receptive knowledge of a word 72.92% (Mean=3.64, SD=0.83), and productive knowledge of a word 72.34%
(Mean=3.61, SD=0.81) without a significant difference between receptive and productive word knowledge. The analysis also revealed that there was only a significant difference between receptive and productive knowledge of the word meaning (p < 0.001). Other receptive and productive aspects of a word were not significantly different, promoted by smartphones. However, there was a significant difference between all word knowledge aspects, both receptively and productively (F (13.00, 1.00) = 0.710, p < 0.415).
36
4.1.2 Qualitative results
The second research question of the current study is “How do Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary?”. Thus, this section aims to provide deeper insights into the classification of vocabulary learning through the use of smartphones among Chinese EFL learners. Here, the focus is the qualitative description and analysis of fifteen participants based on Nation’s (2013) theoretical framework of vocabulary knowledge. The analysis of the findings indicated that smartphones were beneficial for learning English vocabulary among Chinese EFL participants. These findings provided support by the investigation done by (Lei, 2018;
Ajisoko, 2020). The summary information the interview (n=15) provided evidence of how Chinese EFL learners use smartphones to learn English vocabulary. The roles of smartphones in learning three aspects (form, meaning, and use) of a word as well as participants’ attitudes towards smartphone applications were shown in Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Figure 3: The role of smartphones in learning word form of a word (n=15)
37
Figure 3 illustrates that Chinese EFL participants obtained more receptive knowledge than productive knowledge when they used smartphones to understand the word form of a word. Most participants focus on the pronunciation of the word from smartphones. The role of smartphones in learning word meaning of a word was shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The role of smartphones in learning word meaning of a word (n=15)
Figure 4 illustrates that Chinese EFL learners acquired more receptive knowledge than productive knowledge when they used smartphones to understand the word meaning of a word. Most participants just pay attention to the meaning of the word to meet the needs in daily communication or a better understanding of academic materials. The role of smartphones in learning word use of a word was shown in Figures 5 and 6.
38
Figure 5: The role of smartphones in learning word use of a word (n=15)
Figure 6: The role of smartphones in learning word use of a word (n=15)
Figures 5 and 6 illustrate that Chinese EFL learners performed better on receptive knowledge than productive knowledge when they used smartphones to learn the word use of a word. Due to the situation of participants who study in Thailand, they prefer to understand the usage of the word receptively than productively to support their study life abroad. To sum up, the overall results indicated that smartphones were significantly beneficial for learning English vocabulary. All participants used
39
smartphone applications to develop their English vocabulary and language because it was easily convenient to use. Moreover, the functions of them were practical and useful and, also, can help learners to improve their vocabulary knowledge. Most participants typically used the function of translation, pronunciation, spelling, and synonym and antonym. However, the disadvantaged issues showed that the definitions of a word mislead, and the examples were not clear enough in explanation, as such, this may lead misunderstanding and, additionally, the learners did not know precisely how to use the words in the contexts.
4.2 Attitudes towards smartphone applications 4.2.1 Quantitative results
The third research question of the current study is “What are Chinese EFL learners’
attitudes towards smartphone applications?”. The results from quantitative data also showed that there were positive attitudes of Chinese EFL learners towards smartphone applications in learning vocabulary. A majority of the Chinese EFL participants considering the smartphone applications can enhance learning word knowledge. The results were shown in Table 7.
Table 7: Chinese EFL participants’ attitudes towards smartphone applications (n = 130)
Questionnaire items Mean % SD
30. Smartphone applications are convenient to use in daily life. 3.90 78.04 0.794 31. Smartphone applications are easy to use when learning new words. 3.80 76.17 0.780
32. Smartphone applications are handy. 3.90 78.04 0.800
33. Smartphone applications make me prefer to learn words via my
smartphone. 3.78 75.78 0.800
34. Smartphone applications are more efficient than traditional methods. 3.64 72.94 0.808 35. Smartphone applications give me more confidence in learning words. 3.61 72.25 0.813 36. Smartphone applications increase my motivation to learn new words. 3.60 72.05 0.856 37. Smartphone applications make it interesting to learn words. 3.61 72.35 0.836 38. Smartphone applications make me relaxed and enjoyable when I
revise the word I used to write incorrectly. 3.63 72.74 0.815
39. I subscribe to the official accounts in smartphone applications to
learn words for improving my vocabulary. 3.44 68.92 0.953
40. I highly recommend smartphone applications to others for learning
vocabulary. 3.63 72.74 0.803
Overall 3.69 73.82 0.823
40
Table 7 illustrated that the questionnaire items 30 to 40 involving attitudes of learners in using smartphone applications to learn a word was relatively positive. The participants performed that smartphone applications positively contributed to learn a word, including form, meaning, and use both receptively and productively with an overall mean of 3.69 (73.82%, SD = 0.823). Implicationally, based on data gained, this suggests that most learners use smartphone applications in the current English vocabulary learning and, also, the smartphone applications are useful tools to promote and further learners’ word knowledge. As such, all smartphone applications were considered to be positively useful to learn a word by Chinese EFL learners. In summary, the preliminary findings of this study illustrated that all participants held positive attitudes towards using smartphone applications in English vocabulary learning. They also considered that smartphone applications enriched their vocabulary.
4.2.2 Qualitative results
Chinese EFL participants’ attitudes towards smartphone applications were shown in Figures 7 and 8.
Figure 7: Chinese EFL participants’ attitudes towards smartphone applications (n=15)